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Corporation 101

What is a corporation?

Most businesses start out as a small company, owned by one person or by a partnership. The most common type of business when there are multiple owners is a corporation. The law sees a corporation as real, live person. Like an adult, a corporation is treated as a distinct and independent individual who has rights and responsibilities. A corporation's "birth certificate" is the legal form that is filed with the Secretary of State of the state in which the corporation is created, or incorporated. It must have a legal name, just like a person.

A corporation is separate from its owners. It's responsible for its own debts. The bank can't come after the stockholders if a corporation goes bankrupt.

A corporation issues ownership share to persons who invest money in the business. These ownership shares are documented by stock certificates, which state the name of the owner and how many shares are owned. the corporation has to keep a register, or list, of how many shares everyone owns. Owners of a corporation are called stockholders because they own shares of stock issued by the corporation. One share of stock is one unit of ownership; how much one share is worth depends on the total number of shares that the business issues. the more shares a business issues, the smaller the percentage of total owners' equity each share represents.

Stock shares come in different classes of stock. Preferred stockholders are promised a certain amount of cash dividends each year. Common stockholders have the most risk. If a corporation ends up in financial trouble, it's required to pay off its liabilities first. If any money is left over, then that money goes first to the preferred stockholders. If anything is left over after that, then that money is distributed to the common stockholders.

Corporation

"A Corporation Is Not A Person" Sanders Offers Constitutional Amendment to Strip Corporations of "Free Speech"
By Pete Kasperowicz

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday proposed an amendment to the Constitution to exclude corporations from First Amendment rights to spend money on political campaigns. Ref. Source 6

Corporation 101 History & Civil Business Politics

When I first heard about the US Supreme Court granting First Amendment rights to corporations on the basis of the idea that a corporation is a person, I was appalled! I fully understand the legal point of view that grants "personhood" to a corporation because I'm an accountant and I deal with corporations every day; however, I completely disagree with the idea that people can hide behind this "front" and perform all kinds of heinous crimes against humanity and then those people (who made the decisions) are held harmless from the consequences, saying it's the corporation's liability. What crap! And now to let these corporations donate millions and billions of dollars to the flavor-of-the-week politician - and on both sides of the aisle, because they donate equally to both parties - in order to buy legislation that favors their heinous crimes? That's a complete scuttling of the idea of democracy and honest government. Face it folks, in the U.S. We have the best government that money can buy, and corporations rule it, not "we, the people."

Corporation

I heard about this thought process some time ago, I thought it died.

I see and feel that corporpatoins have too much power already, but to give them more, that would only speed our loss of freedoms.

A corporation should not have the status or rights of a individual, they should not even have the right to petition or have any say in government. They should not have the right to contribute to political campaigns, only people as individuals and as groups of individuals, and I am not so sure even about the last item, groups of like minded individuals, I can see abuse eventually coming from that too.

The next worst thing then Corps gaining citizen status, is continuing to allow investment in the area of commodities and such things like land and homes. The housing blowout, from the big bubble was caused by investors, affecting the housing market. Here in CA and nearly half a dozen other states, half of the homes purchased before the bubble popped where sold and owned by investment companies and corporations. They drove up the prices to super high levels, pricing homes well beyond where most could afford them, then came along creative financing that only made things worse. Here in CA, homes were inflating at the rate of like $8,000 to $10,000 a month, at the peak of the bubble. If it is against the law to price gouge prior to a hurricane or etc, what difference is that from investing to drive up prices any other time.

The last two high gas spikes, first it was schools and etc investing in Gas and oil, after they realized how bad it was, in time others got into the act and did the same thing and we are still feeling the results of that one. Stocks and trading should only be about a company, not products we use and need.